


Sinners and the Saints

by MonPetitParselmouth



Series: Endless Cycle of Vengeance [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alex will rant about anything, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/F, F/M, James Really Just Doesn't Know, M/M, Texting, also blueberry pancakes, and grammar, and neither does dolley, because Republicans, but especially politics, everybody loves Eliza, what even are my metaphors, why is that not a real tag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-14 18:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14141640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonPetitParselmouth/pseuds/MonPetitParselmouth
Summary: So here was the thing: the only reason Aaron was a supervillain was because he had a massive, unrequited (or so he thought) crush on one Theodosia Bartow.Also known as Lady Liberty.(Or, Aaron asks Theo out, and there is some slightly awkward bonding time.)





	Sinners and the Saints

So here was the thing: the only reason Aaron was a supervillain was because he had a massive, unrequited (or so he thought) crush on one Theodosia Bartow. 

Also known as Lady Liberty. 

He’d figured, what better way to get the attention of New York City’s most prominent superhero (in his opinion, anyway) than fight her regularly?

They had been best friends since elementary school, so when she had confessed to him about her superpowers when they were thirteen, he had shown her his. He had also actively supported her decision to keep them secret until the time came. Barely a year later, the Arsonist had surfaced, and with him, Icarus. Shortly after came the Blue Phoenix and Archangel, which led to Cataclysm’s first appearance within the month. 

Theo had expressed her urge to help the heroes of the city, and Aaron had done nothing to stop her, just sat back and watched the beautiful chaos that was now his daily life unfold, a plan formulating in his mind. 

He wasn’t quite sure _why_ he was dressing up in supervillain costume and battling with Theo over various crimes on an almost daily basis instead of just hanging out with her like a normal person would, but he went with it. (Unlike heroes in comic books, she could really pull off spandex. And she at least had the taste to wear white and mint green instead of some kind of crazy, garish color like _somebody_ Aaron knew..)

That was what they were probably about to do now. Battle. Although if Aaron had to be honest, it was more of sparring. He and Theo knew their routine by now, knew each other’s moves by heart. 

Aaron tapped his fingers on the shining desk of the random office he had snuck his way into, scrolling through the computer he had hacked into. He glanced at the door, already bored, guessing that he had about fifteen seconds before Theo burst in. He clicked on a file at random and browsed it. 

The door slammed open and a familiar, slightly annoyed feminine voice said, “Really?”

A flicker of a smile crossed his veiled face. “Really _really_ ,” he acknowledged, not even bothering to turn around. _Ten seconds early._

“What the hell are you doing?” Theodosia— _Lady Liberty_ demanded, and Aaron swiveled around in his chair to survey her. She stood before him in all her sleekly muscled 5’6” glory, perfect, chiseled features covered by a teal mask, silver bow slung casually over her shoulder. Her warm brown eyes sparkled in what could have been either amusement or annoyance. Probably both.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he shot back. “I’m stealing the entry codes to the downstairs vault.”

Lady Liberty sighed, hands on her hips. “Save us all the trouble, shut off that laptop and turn yourself in to the authorities.”

Aaron rolled his eyes, even though he knew she couldn’t see. “What’s the point of that?” he asked, standing up, fingers clenching and ready to shoot of a round of frolicking shadows to distract her. 

Letting out another sigh, Lady Liberty reached for an arrow and curled her fist. 

  

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

James Madison @OfficialHeroWatch

#Wraith attempting to break into vault, pretty sure #LadyLiberty is on scene or will be soon 

 

Maria L @female_kylo_ren

@OfficialHeroWatch Five bucks says they’re together. 

 

Thomas Jefferson @Pyromaniac

@female_kylo_ren @OfficialHeroWatch There’s literally no bet on that. 

 

Maria L @female_kylo_ren

@Pyromaniac shhhhh, it’s a secret, remember? @OfficialHeroWatch

  

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

“You know,” shouted Theodosia as she zoomed sideways at a speed that she really shouldn’t have been able to reach, dodging Wraith’s artillery of shadow-knives, “you could just ask me out!”

“What?” he replied, ducking as she released an arrow at him and it zinged by his neck. 

It was Theo’s turn to roll her eyes. “I _said_ ,” she practically yelled over the _thunk thunk thunk_ of the knives hitting the wall behind her and dissipating back into shadows, “that it would be a lot easier if you just asked me out instead of pulling all these crazy stunts just to get me to notice you.”

Wraith actually, literally froze at that, and Theo had to bite back a snicker. It was moments like these when she was a little disappointed that his face was covered by a veil, because she would pay an arm and a leg to see the expression of mingled shock and enthusiasm that she was sure was on it. 

Alarms were blaring from somewhere else in the building, but she ignored them. The fight was over, anyway. 

Wraith blurted out, “So do you want to grab dinner sometime, _Liberty_?”

Theo grinned behind her mask. “Thought you’d never ask.” She strode across the room, shut the laptop that was still open and starting to overheat, and added, “Are you free tonight?”

“Um, nothing I can’t reschedule . . . later. . .”

She smiled brightly. “Great, see you then, _Wraith_.”

She frowned in the direction of a security camera fastened to the corner of the ceiling, then simply backhanded it with such superhuman force that it cracked and shattered into a million pieces. Then, acting on an impulse, she carefully took off her mask, yanked off Wraith’s veil to reveal his shimmering, calculating eyes, and kissed him soundly. 

He made a faint noise of surprise. Theo laughed into his mouth, the parting of her lips deepening the kiss, but it turned into a muffled swearword as footsteps began to echo through the halls outside. She pulled away, tugging her mask back on. 

The door was flung open yet again as people crowded in, and Wraith— _Aaron_ — promptly vanished into the shadows. Theo huffed and prepared for the press to begin bombarding her with questions and also ~~quite possibly~~ stalking her. 

But that was okay. She had a date. 

 

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

_The Arsonist texted you on Friday at 10:47 am_

 

The Arsonist: so do you want to come to our movie night later today

 

The Arsonist: its at my place

 

The Arsonist: cat, laf,  and my friend James will be there

 

Dolley: what? why me?

 

The Arsonist: bc Aaron is on a date and someone needs to be my impulse control

 

Dolley: Aaron?

 

The Arsonist: Wraith

 

Dolley: I see

 

Dolley: isn't icarus your impulse control technically?

 

The Arsonist: Well

 

The Arsonist: he would be

 

The Arsonist: except he has literally no impulse control of his own

 

Dolley: Fair enough. 

 

The Arsonist: so movie night y or n

 

Dolley: … why are you being so nice to me?

 

The Arsonist: meh

 

Dolley: And that’s a yes to the movie night btw

 

The Arsonist: great pick you up @8 outside your apartment

 

Dolley: I’d ask how you know where I live but once again i’d rather not know

 

The Arsonist: smart choice

  

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

Sam Seabury @LASuperPatrol

Do you ever wonder why superheroes/villains do what they do @OfficialHeroWatch

 

James Madison @OfficialHeroWatch

@LASuperPatrol To be honest, I’ve chalked it up to just another minor inconvenience of life by now.

 

 

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

Dolley wasn’t really sure what she expected when she accepted the Arsonist’s invitation to a Friday movie night, but it certainly wasn't _this_. 

A person with curly hair and a magenta scarf had been awaiting her on her doorstep and had inquired if she was Dolley Payne. She had barely had enough time to nod her head before he had taken her arm and a blinding flash of magenta light had made her squeeze her eyes shut automatically, head pounding. When she cracked open first one eyelid, than another, the first thing she had seen were a pair of electric-blue eyes. 

“Hello,” said the person to whom the eyes belonged. 

The fact that he looked fifteen, perhaps sixteen was the first thing that really registered with her. The next thing was that there was a good chance that he was the Arsonist. 

Putting those two facts together, Dolley realized that the Arsonist, arguably the most feared supervillain in the city, was her age. Which _what_. 

They were standing in what looked to be the living room of an apartment. Another boy, in a light blue sweatshirt, was reclining on a couch, one eyebrow raised.

“Who is that?” he asked. He had a slight French accent that immediately placed him as the Marquis. 

“I’m Dorothea Payne,” she introduced herself automatically. “But don’t ever call me Dorothea.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” interjected the one in magenta—the Arsonist, her mind supplied—“why?”

“Because _ew_ ,” she replied with a hint of scorn, which was what she always said. He snickered, making her stifle a giggle of her own. “It is not the eighteenth century. Call me Dolley.”

“In that case,” said the Marquis, “Je m’appelle Lafayette, call me Laf. Thomas, when did you pick her up?”

The Arsonist—Thomas—shrugged and set a familiar black walking cane that Dolley only noticed now down on the coffee table. “I met her—well technically, I _digitally_ met her—a few days ago, when I was up in Queens, just messing around, and I didn’t want her to get hurt.”

It took a moment for Dolley to process this information. _He didn’t want her to get hurt._ If he didn’t want her to get hurt—and she was going to assume that he didn’t want anyone _else_ to get hurt, either, since she was practically a stranger—then why on earth was he even a supervillain?

And Jesus Christ, she was in the same room as two _supervillains_. She’d just gotten over how crazy it was that the Arsonist—the _Arsonist_ —had texted _her_ , of all people, and now she was casually conversing with both him and the Marquis. The _Marquis_. Honestly, Dolley’s life was so messed up right now that she wouldn’t be surprised if rainbow wallabies and woodchucks fell from the sky and started throwing banana fritters at people. 

Her (frankly nonsensical) train of thought was interrupted by the doorbell. Thomas glanced at her, a question in his eyes, for a moment before ducking away. There was the sound of a door opening and greetings being exchanged. Lafayette got up from the couch, gazing intently at the hallway. 

Thomas made his way back, an extremely pretty girl following him. Dolley studied her with interest, trying not to be a creepy stalker but also checking her out. The girl was just wearing a coffee-stained crimson blouse and ripped jeans, but she hadn't never seen anything more majestic. When she caught the girl’s eye—her mascara was absolutely impeccable, by the way—Dolley had one of those moments where she really wished her light caramel complexion was just a little bit darker, because she was sure that her cheeks were flaming hotter than Mount St. Helens during an eruption. 

“Hi, Cat,” said Laf cheerfully. 

_Cat. . ._

_Cataclysm_ , whispered the fragment of Dolley's mind that was actually functioning. _She’s Cataclysm._

“Who’s that?” asked the girl, and Dolley had to take a deep breath because she was _looking at her._ Not waiting for an answer, Cataclysm said to Dolley, “I’m Mariah Lewis. Spelled without an ‘h’. Do not call me ‘Ma-ree-ah’.” A threatening note took hold of the girl— _Maria’s_ voice. 

Blinking, Dolley could only nod. “I’m Dolley Payne. Don’t call me Dorothea.” The words tumbled out of her mouth before she was even aware of them.

Maria stared at her for a moment, eyes narrowing, and the part of Dolley’s brain that actually had a sense of self-preservation awoke and began berating her. But then Maria threw back her head and laughed.“You know what, Payne, I like you a lot,” she said conversationally.

Dolley had to physically pinch herself to keep from falling over and blacking out. _God,_ she thought with an unsettling realization. _I’m helpless. Look into her eyes; she’s making me helpless._

She stopped that line of thought right where it was. _No,_ Dolley told herself sternly. _She’s probably straight anyway._

Maria shifted an inch or two closer to Dolley and she held her breath, not daring to move. 

The doorbell rang again, effectively pulling Dolley out of her stunned stupor. This time she followed Thomas over to the door and watched as it opened to the face of someone she most definitely knew—James Madison, her classmate. 

“Jemmy?” she said, blinking. 

“ _Dolley_?”

That was when Thomas started laughing. “So you’re _that_ Dolley,” he said to her with a grin. 

“You know the Arsonist,” said Dolley fiercely, her mind still whirling with this information, “and you somehow neglected to mention this to me?”

James raised his hands in surrender. “I only found out a couple of days ago! For all I knew, he was just this guy I met in the shop, and then we went for coffee one day an became friends, but then I found out, and I didn’t really know what to do about it?” He had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. “It’s like. . . I don’t know.”

“Uh,” said Dolley, who wasn’t sure what to make of the situation, “okay.”

“So,” Laf interrupted, “what’re we watching?”

“Star Wars,” said Maria and Thomas together. 

“Again?” whined Laf. Dolley and James exchanged amused looks. 

“Yes!” Thomas practically hollered. 

“But—” Lafayette began. 

Maria snarled softly, and it took a considerable amount of Dolley’s self-control to not gape as she stood up fluidly and the moonlight glimmered on her perfect cheekbones, illuminating every detail. Mesmerized, Dolley could only stare as blazing passion rushed into Maria’s smoky topaz eyes and highlighted the exotic black flecks scattered in them. After a moment, she realized that the girl was talking.

“We _are_ watching Star Wars,” Maria was informing Laf icily, “and you _will not_ complain or so help me God I will _slit_ the palms of your hands, let the blood _drain_ out of your veins, and _enjoy_ watching your last dying breaths as the life floods out of you, _got it_? Good. Now _shut_ your _mouth_.”

Laf just shrugged, unfazed. Maria plopped back onto the sofa and reached for the movie disc of _The Force Awakens_.

“Wow,” Dolley murmured under her breath, equal parts starstruck and terrified out of her wits. 

She had a feeling it was going to be a looooong night. 

 

 

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

_You texted James on Sunday at 9:30 am_

 

ThomasJ: all I'm saying is that they CAN'T have crashed the falcon THROUGH A PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE at top speed without burning into nothingness halfway through. its statistically impossible and doesn't make ANY SENSE

 

James: We have been through this before. About this movie AND the last Jedi, AND all three prequels. Spare me. 

 

ThomasJ: also I don't get why they just like have lor san tekka in there for 1 scene and we have no idea where he came from or who he is?? there is nothing that explains it in the next movie???

 

James: And I don't get why you regularly crash at my place dripping your blood all over the floor after battles. tough world.

 

ThomasJ: ‘dripping my blood all over the floor’ describes like 50% of my life tho

 

James: But you’re dripping blood like all the time, not just fifty percent?

 

ThomasJ: I said MY blood

 

ThomasJ: ‘dripping Icarus's blood all over the floor’ is the other 50% 

 

James: And you wonder why we call you a villain

 

ThomasJ: My dear madison, I do no such thing 

 

James: You're such a . . . 

 

James: Aargh see what you did?

 

James: You're so despicable I can't think of a bad enough insult for you

 

James: You're not even reading these texts are you

 

James: Yeah you're not even reading these texts

 

James: That's just petty

 

James: I honestly don't know why I have this insane attraction to you

 

James: wait

 

James: frick

 

_James has deleted this conversation_

  

 

 

 

»»-------------¤-------------«« 

 

Late morning sunlight streamed through the window of the restaurant Angelica had chosen to eat brunch at. Currently, some stereotypically crazy stuff was going on at the wooden table the superheroes of NYC were sitting at. 

Alexander was thrusting his phone in Theodosia’s face and going on a rant about Republicans and something something yada yada, because of _course_ he was. Eliza was shoveling blueberry pancakes into her mouth so fast that Angelica was a little worried for her health. Theo was checking her messages every other minute, clearly ignoring Alex with practiced ease, and sniggering at something somebody was texting her—Angelica was reasonably sure she knew who. 

“—supporting somebody who doesn’t respect the personal rights of—”

“How was your date with Aaron last night, Theo?” asked Angelica loudly, mainly to get Alex to close his mouth for half a second. 

“Yeah, how was your _date_ with _Burr_?” echoed Alex smugly, stopping in his tirade. 

Theo set down her phone and looked up, still smiling. “Great,” she responded happily. “We went to a really good Thai place by Lizzie’s work, it was fun.”

“Does he know about. . . you know. . .” Alex waved his hand around vaguely. 

Angelica didn’t miss the shadow of panic that flitted across Theo’s face when Alex said that, and she filed that piece of information away for further analyzation at a later time. “No,” answered Theo too quickly, “no, that didn’t come up.”

“Okay,” said Eliza softly, who looked like she’d noticed the panic too. “How’s John, Alex?”

“Oh, he’s fine,” replied Alex, ever oblivious to the less-than-smooth subject change. “He got a turtle yesterday.”

“Really?” said Theo, uncharacteristically high-pitched. “What’s its name?”

“Squirt. John told me he . . .”

Tuning out of the conversation, Angelica decided that whatever was bothering Theo, she’d tell them when she was ready. It wouldn’t do to pry. Still. . . 

 _Enjoy the moment,_ Angelica told herself, looking around. She took a bite of her cinnamon French toast and smiled, settling back in her chair. _We’re lucky to be alive right now._

Alex had somehow gone from talking about Squirt’s eating habits to romanticizing John’s eyes to ranting about politics—or maybe it was the grammar tendencies of conservative senators, it was hard to tell the difference. Angelica snuck a piece of Eliza’s pancake, ignoring the “hey!” from her sister that this earned her, and went back to attempting to shut out the drone of Alex’s voice. _Attempting_ being the acting word there. 

“I hate when people do this!” Alex was grouching, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. “‘Your guys’s opinions’ is _not_ a grammatically correct—or professional— way of expressing a plural form of ‘your opinions’, Governor Howe! For one, since ‘your’ is a possessive pronoun, that implies that the opinion belongs to guys that belong to you, whomever ‘you’ might refer to, which is completely and ridiculously nonsensical. For two, ‘you guys’s’ doesn’t make sense either. The double ’s' shouldn’t even count as two syllables, and besides, ‘your’, ‘you all’s’, and if it’s really necessary, ‘y’all’s’ are all acceptable. And I mean, his actual opinions are literal bullcrap, too. _How_ , might I ask, does he think that forcing kids to tell the state government if they have superpowers before letting them go to school will accomplish anyth—”

“Alex,” Angelica cut in sweetly, as other patrons of the eatery began to shoot them odd looks, “shut up.”

The blissful silence that came after was worth a million blueberry pancakes. 

(Almost.)

**Author's Note:**

> I originally had that as 'the blissful silence that came after was worth anything', but I changed it last-minute on a whim.  
> The Schuyler sisters’ first real appearance, besides that really short scene with Eliza fretting about Laf! *throws confetti*  
> Don’t worry, Peggy will come along in a few installments. I’m waiting for the right moment.  
> (silently hopes nobody asks about Howe)


End file.
